EL2 in Baku: Leclerc takes a Ferrari double

After an opening session reduced to its simplest expression, the second free session promised to offer action on the track, with the teams desperate to make up for lost time early in the afternoon.  

On an urban track that is still very green and slippery, nThere were many pilots who made mistakes. Almost all of them came out without injury, the exceptions being Lance stroll, who bent the left front suspension of his Racing Point when hitting the Tecpro barriers at Turn 2, and Daniil Kvyat, who hit the wall on the exit of Turn 7. The Canadian and the Russian both resulted in a red flag, which further limited the driving time during the day. 

Charles Leclerc finally gets the best time of the day with a time of 1'42''872 three tenths faster than that of his teammate Sebastian Vettel. Note that the Ferrari took turns to give each other a boost on the immense straight of the Azerbaijani track, probably with a view to qualifying. 

Current leader of the world championship, Lewis Hamilton must be satisfied with the 3rd time, 0''669 from Leclerc's mark. The best Red Bull, that of Max Verstappen, is in 4th position, almost a second behind. The Dutchman precedes the second W10 of Valtteri Bottas and Toro Rosso of the unfortunate Kvyat. 

His garage neighbor Alexander albon ranks 8th, ahead of Pierre Gasly, the last representative of the quartet of Red Bull drivers. After a difficult weekend in China, McLaren bounced back by placing both of its cars in the Top 10. Carlos Sainz is 7th, three places ahead Lando Norris. 

In the second half of the table, we find the Haas, Alfa Romeo, the Racing Point, the Renault, and the Williams by Robert Kubica. The Pole, who was more than 5 seconds behind Leclerc, was the only representative of the Grove team on the track after the misadventures of his teammate George Russell in FP1. The British rookie had driven over a detached manhole cover which completely ruined the flat bottom of his FW42 and forced the team to change the chassis.

Russell will return to the track on Saturday during Free Practice 3, which starts at 14:00 p.m. local time (12:00 p.m. in France). The qualifying session will take place at 17:00 p.m. (15:00 p.m. in France) and will be followed live with commentary via our live text on CARhebdo.fr. 

In view of the first runs, we would be tempted to put a coin on Ferrari but we will remember that the Scuderia had dominated the debates at the start of the Chinese weekend two weeks ago before fading away afterwards.

After a severely shortened FP1, the drivers were itching to get out in FP2

And it was @ScuderiaFerrari who came out on top in Baku #AzerbaijanGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/NvD52nsFgY

— Formula 1 (@F1) April 26th